St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-12-01

.You do beat all !" sighed Aunt Pol
", shocked and discouraged. "The
idee of singin' them solemn things as
though they was Yankee Doodle"
But she gave up the catechism.
There were neither feasts nor fasts
for the town poor; those happy festi
walls that divide the year gladly OIL
or sadly were not for these paupers
Turkey, the statutory sacrifice OF
Thanksgiving day, was too great a
luxury, even once a year, for them
Aunt Polly mourned over the fact, but
to feast her family one day would i'm
ply a rigorous fast for two days, so ex-
act was the economy by which she was
enabled to give them enough to eat, to
wear, to keep warm. She always fled
on that day, for not only did she feel
ashamed to pass the great New En-
gland holiday by all unobserved, but
her married daughter in Bridgewater
made it a point that her parents should
come to her to spend Thanksgiving ;
SO they sent into Dalton for Miss Sc
mantha Dart, the village tailoress, a
rigid and severe spinster, as much
without friends or relatives as Mel
chisedec, and apparently almost as
old, to rule the family in their absence;
and Aunt Polly invariably provided
overnight the simple luxuries OF a
great baked Indian pudding, and GER
| tain Hubbard squashes, split, seeded,
literally sprinkled with maple sugar,
| and baked in the brick oven till the
orange flesh became a rich glutinOus
mass of sweetness.
"'Tain't no great" she signed to
Sim as they drove away from the door
in the cold November air, "but it is all
| can do for 'em."
"Well, well, MOTHER" chuckled Sim
in invariable response to this annual
remark. "NobOdy can't do nothin'
more'n they can"
Blessed philosophy yet how few of
us poor mOrtals could fall back on it
with as clear a conscience as Aunt Pol
ly'sP
1t was on one of these occasions
that Lame Jim uttered the announce
ment with which our story opens. He
waved his battered hat after the de-
parting couple, and leaning up against
the gate post, harangued old Cephas
as follows: "Say, Ceph, why don't we
never have no pies an things here for
| Thanksgivin' like other folks ~
Zoos, We everlastin' fool, poor folks
haven't got nothin' to be thankful for"
"Might be real thankful for one
good dinner, anyway. Jeewhillikins
I'd jest like to have try at one o.
them turkeys | picked an dressed a
Monday. Didn't they look be -ewtifulR
fat an white as chestnut worms, ev-
cry one of 'em. guess they was prop
or good eatin'. l sh'd be thankful as
all possessed eff | was to sOt down to
one of 'em."
"Well, you won't never be, so you
can chaw on that 'stead o. turkey"
81 dom know! | amt cock sure o.
that" sturdily retorted Jim. "SOme
times folks can fetch things round eff
they're reel sot, and Pm kind o. sOt on
hevin' one Thanksgivin' day, eff we be
town poor"
''You might jest as we'll calculate to
have the moon for breakfast. Now L
tell We. Don't be no worse fool a-pup-
pus than We be by natur'."
"Well, | don't know but what I'd as
lieves be a fool an take the comfort
be and have the wust o. everything to
my tongues end"
"There's where you be fool; l amt
L
on anything, whereas and however you
get disappointed whether or no. You
won't fetch no secll Thanksgivin' as
you reckon to, now you bark to me, or
you'll get your fingers burnt"
81 don't care! Pm gOin' to, wheth-
er or no."
There was year for Jim to lay his
plans, but before we develop these we
10 INF
Dalton was one of those primitive
towns of New England few of which
still exist. In these days even the
children of our new Temporary homes"
are often denied admittance to the dis
er, but still the Sunday schools receive
them. Jim could have gone to the
day school in Dalton, but his first
weeks experience there Disguised
Aunt Polly, and she sent him no more.
In the rough play of "noOn spell" he
was thrown down by bigger boy,
and kicked sharply on his side; he
tainted from pain, and from that date
the lameness in his hip began. No
doubt it would have been his fate SOON
er or later, but this accident or cruelty
fastened it. His first recollection on
tender little face bending over him,
the hazel eyes full of tears, the silky
golden curls lying on his forehead, the
brown but gentle little hands bathing
his face with cold water. Jim never
forgot that good deed of FlOrinda AL
len. Many a quart of chestnuts, when
he was strong enough to limp .Out in
the woods again, reached her hands
Inn Of Ho do
or bunch of pinkest arbutus deity tied
up with ground pine sprays. He tanned
a crow for her, which turned out such
torment that DR.. Allen promptly
ended it's existence, but its stuffed skin
many a day. And when he was twelve
years old, and was sent to Sunday
school, he sat i'm the class next to Flo
day to the girls nod and smile of well
come as that part of the services alto
gether most agreeable.
There was no particular sentiment
i'm Jim's composition. 1t was sort of
compensation for his other defects that
he was quite insensitive to those dis
turbing passions which rack the youth
full breast ordinarily. He looked upon
FlOrry Allen as "a CLEAN of brightness
and cheer, and had persistent feel
ing of gratitude toward her, which,
like all real gratitude, blOssomed into
actions.
Indeed he took real pleasure, as
the girl shot up into blooming woman
hood and became the village belle, in
numbering her various admirers; and
when :she at. last selected one from
among them to honor with her prefer
ence, Jim was overjoyed to find it was
his own hero among the youths of Dali